...seven years ago, one of the deadliest hurricanes struck the United States on the early morning of August 29, 2005. Hurricane Katrina was an extraordinary powerful hurricane that took the lives of several people, and it is considered the third deadliest hurricane to ever strike the country on top of being the costliest. Devastation spread throughout the central Gulf Coast as people from the affected areas evacuated their cities in hopes that they would have a home and a place to work when they returned. Katrina made landfall at three different locations, but its impact was seen all throughout the world as people came together to restore the destruction created by the storm. For the past 30 years, inland flooding has been the primary cause of hurricane-related fatalities with fatalities due to strong winds not far behind. Most hurricanes can produce a rainfall of least 6-12 inches, or 15-30 centimeters. Inland residents have to be cautious of slow-moving storms (NG). From its center, Katrina spread over 100 miles, or 160 kilometers, and is the largest hurricane of its strength to have ever struck the United States. It is recorded as the third strongest hurricane to make landfall in the United States and named sixth as the strongest hurricane ever recorded. Out of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, Katrina was the 11th named storm as well as the 5th hurricane and second Category 5 hurricane (DISCOVERY). The Saffir-Simpson scale measures hurricane intensity by placing them in categories...
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...Hurricane Katrina: Race and Class in America and the Failure of Its Government Carlus R. Townsend English 215 2/25/12 Introduction How hurricane Katrina exposed Racism in the US Hurricane Katrina that happened 7 years ago was a natural adversity. Few years following Hurricane Katrina, individuals are still feeling the repercussion and queries of racism. Katrina uncovered racism and division inequality in America, and the way the government failed the citizens in so many aspects. Many black people residing in New Orleans that were affected felt as if they considered themselves as genocide victims compared to what happened to them and the treatment they received after the hurricane. The majority of the affected people were blacks and this paper try to analyze how the victims of the hurricane were discriminated upon because of their race and face unbearable inequality because of their race ethnicity. Discrimination against Hurricane Katrina victims Various people, particularly the politicians, spoke out insisting that the comparison of the holocaust was inappropriate, as there was no use of any gas chambers utilization. This resulted to many people wondering if the act of racism was in existence without absolute violence. Communities residing in New Orleans insists that individuals died because of utter neglect. This took place because the affected persons were the black race, and so the government neglected them and was not concerned to what happened...
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...Hurricane Katrina changed the way United States viewed floodplain management and flood risk management. The Great Mississippi River Flood of 1993 produced the highest economic damages of the century, killing over 130 people, costing over $20 billion dollars in flood damages. Hurricane Katrina caused over a million people to lose homes, jobs, and took over 1300 lives. It has been estimated the restoration of the communities and some level of flood protections will exceed over $100 billion dollars when it’s all done. Before the twin towers were hit on September 11, 2001, it seem like the United States was headed in the right directions with floodplain and risked management. Due to the terrorist attacks on that day, change the way America took their approach on homeland security. All the focus and money shifted to US Department of Defense, and the natural hazard management was kind of put on the back burner and basically forgot about until Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Hurricane Katrina changed the game for how America planned for flooding and risk management. When Hurricane Katrina hit, it was a slap in the face on the response to flooding that took place in New Orleans. Up to this point there was not a single inventory of levees and flood damage structures in United States. America became a reactive force instead of an active force. The Secretary of Defense got involved and requested the US National Academics to establish...
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...Hurricane Katrina: What It Was and the Aftermath Hurricanes, also known as tropical cyclones, are some of the deadliest and costliest natural disasters that affect the United States. They are severe tropical storms that form along the southern Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and in the eastern Pacific Ocean. After the hit, they trigger thunderstorms within an area. Within the Northern Hemisphere, they have winds that go counterclockwise near earth’s surface. Hurricanes occur most frequently within the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts. Typical hurricane season for the Atlantic coast is between June to November. However, the deadliest months are between August to October. Whereas, the Eastern Pacific season starts in May and...
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...Governmental Fumble: Hurricane Katrina Things that occur naturally such as tornadoes, earthquakes, and hurricanes are unpreventable and are considered to be natural disasters. However, when man knowingly aids in the destructive power of naturally occurring events to inflect more damage, it is unquestionably a manmade disaster. For many years, both in the past and present, the United States has experienced some of the most devastating natural and artificial catastrophes such as The Dust Bowl of the 1930’s and the September 11 terror attack by the Al-Qaida terror network among others. In the case of Hurricane Katrina, the human factor contributed to both the deadliest and costliest hurricane to impact the city of New Orleans. A city that is known to be the birth place of Jazz and the yearly celebration of Mardi Gras has unfortunately inherited a new chain of thought as the city that went underwater. Hurricane Katrina was the third strongest land hurricane and the sixth-strongest Atlantic hurricane ever recorded. The hurricane is approximated to have affected more than 1.5 million individuals in the states of Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama, which contributed to the loss of billions of dollars in damages and job losses caused by the hurricane. The city of New Orleans was the most affected because it stood directly in Katrina’s path and although it is impossible to stop a naturally occurring event from occurring, it is not impossible to limit the damage that it inflicts...
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...Hurricane Katrina was the priciest and one of the deadliest hurricanes to hit the coast of the United States in recorded history. The category three natural disaster is the sixth most severe storm on record, one of the most destructive storms in U.S. history, and it’s responsible for about 150 billion dollars in damage and the loss of over 1,800 people. It was the evening before Wednesday, August 23, 2005 when Hurricane Katrina had raised from the oceans near Louisiana. In the beginning, its wind speed was 75mph which increased to 170mph just within 5 days. It was started off as a category 1 hurricane but then converted into a category 5 hurricane. Like most hurricanes, Hurricane Katrina formed over the warm waters of the Atlantic Ocean. To...
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...Gaines Dear Hurricane Sandy Hurricanes are not typical in the Mid-Atlantic states and Northeast, so when Hurricane Sandy hit the eastern United States in October/November 2012. It was predicted to cause a great deal of destruction. According to an online news report for CNN, Hurricane Sandy caused 253 deaths, mainly in the New York and New Jersey Area. There was also a tremendous financial loss. Current estimates show the loss at nearly 65.5 billion dollars. Now that recovery efforts have began, state and federal agencies are hoping to clean-up and rebuild after the devastating storm. Hurricane Sandy rolled onto shore and pounded the northwest for two days, but it will be a few years before the area recovers fully from the destruction it caused. Over the course of a few weeks, 253 deaths have been attributed to the hurricane. Approximately 653 people have not been accounted for. It is not known if they are dead or alive. Hurricane Sandy put entire homes under water. Several people have taken pictures of sharks swimming outside of their houses. It will be years before most of the people of the Mid-Atlantic States get back to their standard of living. In the inner parts of New York, people are starving due to food not reaching them in time. In each area, thousands of people are experiencing power outages. Some people are reporting being close to freezing to death due to the harsh winter months. Each week, the death toll rises as people die from different causes that at the...
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...August 25, 2005 Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in New Orleans Louisiana, killing 1,836 people third deadliest hurricane in the United States history. A town that sits below sea level never stands a chance of levee embankment not able to withstand the overflow of a flood from a river. When New Orleans Louisiana was founded in construction of the levee along the river began, and more extensive levee was built as the city grew. The barriers were erected to prevent seasonal flooding. Katrina was formed in the Atlantic and had reach a Category 5 status, it was described as the worst disaster of all times, hurricanes are formed in the tropics and required consistent heat to exist. Many scientists believe that global warming was partially responsible for the massive force hurricane Katrina threw out. Although there is considerable argument over how climate change will affect certain ecosystem, it is still believed that climate change causes major shifts in the distribution and ecosystem species. After reviewing the Katrina hurricane situation scientists and engineers research its alignment with national needs, the National Hurricane Research Initiative (NHRI) concluded that the United States must be engaged in a research initiative to expand the understanding of hurricane and determine some more effective’s strategies for dealing with the issue. Presently hurricanes are not obsolete researchers need to understand the complexities between hurricanes and climate. Modern shields...
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...catastrophic to people on earth are hurricanes, earthquakes, and tsunamis. All three natural disasters occur in many countries. Hurricanes are common in the United State of America, earthquakes are common in Mexico, and tsunamis are common in Japan. These three countries have experienced the worst damage from these natural disasters. The countries had to watch their people die, find a way to recover physically and mentally, and suffer from billions of dollars in damages. These people practically lose everything and have to find a way to rebuild what was lost. In order to save lives and help reduce damage from natural disasters, mankind has come a long way in technology to predict the size and location of each natural disaster’s destruction. Technology is not the same as it was one hundred years ago. With the help from NASA and scientists all over the world, people are able to give out broadcasted warnings to millions of people of the natural disaster that’s about to hit. All in all, technology has saved many lives from natural disasters but mankind is still trying to find a way in reducing damage from Mother Nature’s burst hits. In the past mankind didn’t have the sophisticated technology that was able to closely predict and track a hurricane’s projection? One hundred years ago scientists and meteorologists were still trying to figure out if their calculation for a projected hurricane was reliable or not. In the 1800’s prediction of a hurricane occurring were from ships that...
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...Hurricane Katrina was one of the deadliest and costliest hurricanes in the United States. Katrina made landfall as a category three hurricane on August 29, 2005. The initial landfall was made in the Gulf Region near Buras Louisiana and later at the Louisiana and Mississippi border at Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Katrina packed sustained hurricane force winds of 125 mph, and extended out 75 miles from the eye of the storm (NOAA, 2012). Katrina’s damage was devastating to residents of the area affected. The causes and impact of hurricane Katrina were negative environmental, social, and economical effects on the Gulf Coast Region. A hurricane is a type of tropical cyclone or a low pressure system which forms in the tropics. It is a huge storm and is accompanied by thunderstorms. They can be as wide as 600 miles across and carry winds as high as 200 miles per hour. Hurricanes gather heat and energy from contact with warm ocean waters. The warmer the water is, the more intense the hurricane becomes. The storm surge caused by the hurricane which can be more than eighteen feet high causes flooding once it reaches land. Hurricanes range in categories one through five. A category one hurricane has winds of 74-95 miles per hour, and is considered to cause minimal damage. A category five storm has winds greater than 155 miles per hour, and the damage to expect is catastrophic. In 2001 FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) released a report that listed three most likely catastrophic...
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...Preparedness and Resilience Planning during Hurricane Sandy: Hurricane Sandy Lessons Learned from Hurricane Katrina University of Maryland University College Homeland Security Management: Resilience Planning and Preparedness for Disaster Response and Recovery (2152), Spring 2015 Written By: Brittany Wiley Introduction: Major Hurricane disasters along the coastlines have affected many cities and communities which have forced them to take into action and adopt the conception of emergency management, such as resilience planning, disaster preparedness, response and recovery planning. Mitigation preparedness plays an effective part in the emergency management plan. Many cities and communities must explore strategies to reduce the major impact these disasters have and implement resilience planning that will allow communities to rebuild. According to the National Disaster Recovery Framework (2011), “a successful recovery process promotes practices that minimize the community’s risk to all hazards and strengthens it’s ability to withstand and recover from future disasters, which constitute a community’s resiliency” (p. 11). Furthermore, Hurricane disaster’s not only expose community’s vulnerabilities but it gives them the opportunity to rebuild with more resiliency. When comparing two devastating Hurricane disasters that have impacted many cities, communities and lives; it’s important to consider Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans and Hurricane Sandy, New Jersey and New York. Both...
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...Datrel Johnson Professor Peter Johnson Geography 101 25 August 2013 Describe Hurricane Katrina Beginning in the 1950s, the United States have witnessed two Category Five Storms and seven Category Four Storms naming Hurricane Katrina as one of the most deadly Category Four hurricanes to hit the Gulf Coast. On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina dismantled several sections of the levee which caused it to collapse. The storm then breeched the New Orleans’ levee system allowing Lake Ponchartrain and the Mississippi River to flow in the heart of the city. Furthermore, a tremendous amount of damages occurred throughout the coast of Mississippi and Alabama. The state of Louisiana sustained most of the damages not just from Hurricane Katrina, “but also to a unique physiographic setting of New Orleans.” (Locke) The storm, Hurricane Katrina was identified as powerful and huge because of the well-formed eye of a typical category four hurricane. Throughout the duration, warm sea water was its fuel for continued momentum and power. The intensity had “closely matched the water temperature” which led the hurricane to reach its peak intensity; category five. (Locke) The storm predicted maximum “rainfall east of the storm-eye track.” (Locke) As Hurricane Katrina took her course, evidence provided “that the right front quadrant” was indeed the most powerful part of the hurricane. (Locke) “The powerful winds and rain occurred here because of rotational winds and steering winds (the prevailing...
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...2015 Hurricanes Manifestations of Disaster Winds of disaster, waves of multitude, preparations galore, the wait is on to determine the outcome of a hurricane. Being one of the most devastating and feared natural disasters, hurricanes are a brutal and unpredictable force. Never knowing what could happen or what they will do, forewarning and preparation for hurricanes are highly recommended. A hurricane is a form of a tropical cyclone or severe tropical storm that occurs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, Caribbean Sea, Southern Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico (conserve-energy-future.com). The cause of a hurricane is a force of nature, but the effects that follow are to land, people, and lives. The cause and effects of hurricanes deal with many facts and factors. Thus, the term hurricane is a derivative of a Native American word, Taino meaning “evil spirit of the wind” (conserve-energy-future.com). It is apparent that hurricanes go back many years. Yet in 1943 the first one was recognized for causing people to fly. When these disasters are formed, they begin in an atmosphere filled with moisture and warmth and develop into swirling above ocean waters. When the swirling increases, the eye of the hurricane begins to form. When the eye is formed, clouds form rings and thunder clouds around it and will develop energy and quantity to ten atom bombs per second (conserve-energy-future.com). As hurricanes progress they can cause tornadoes and heavy rains which cause flooding...
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...Communication: Past and Present HCS/320 July 25, 2013 Sandra Alviso Communication: Past and Present Every country suffers from natual dissasters. In 1979 at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station there was a malfunction that Lt. Gov. Bill Scranton miss communicated to the public. (Rose, 2011). In 2005 Mother Nature brought Hurricane Katrina to the coast Lousiana and, she devastated the city of New Orleans. Today our community’s natural disaster is a life-threatening biological agent which has spread in the water supply of several towns. Technology has changed the way a community in a disaserous situation communicates after the Three Mile Island and Hurricane Katrina. Comparing the way an Emergency Management Office communicates with the public and the groups involved, the advantages and challenges that come with the past and present communication technology, and the media opportunities used in today’s world. Individuals and Groups With a life-threatening situation there are many individuals and groups internally and externally that need to be notified of the situation. Within the office the entire staff needs to be aware of the seriousness of the situation. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Center for Disease Control Center (CDC) are a few federal agencies that need to be aware of the situation. The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Office of Emergency Communications (OEC) was directed by Congress to develop the first National...
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...Hurricane vs. Tornado Two devastating and deadly natural disasters are the hurricane and the tornado which both cause heavy amounts of damage and are uncontrollable. There are many similarities in how hurricanes and tornadoes are formed. Although they are distinct disasters, hurricanes, and tornadoes pose similar threats to resources because of high winds which can destroy properties and affect the economy along with people’s lives. Both the hurricane, and the tornado are rated on a category scale. First, devastating, and deadly natural disaster is a hurricane. In order for a hurricane to form it has to begin in a warm atmosphere. The seas are normally at their warmest from June to November. A hurricane requires sea- surface temperatures of at least 26 degrees Celsius (80 degrees Fahrenheit). This provides energy for the hurricane and causes more evaporation making humid air and clouds. The winds coming together force air upwards and winds flow outwards above the storm, allowing the air below to rise. Now this is what makes the storm and the light winds outside the hurricane steers it and this is how it grows into a formation of a hurricane. All hurricanes are dangerous and can cause numerous amounts of damage but the most dangerous parts of hurricanes are storm surges which also cause huge amounts of damages because of flooding. The flooding is caused by winds pushing ocean water toward sand. It is estimated that ten-thousand people die each year because of hurricanes. Many...
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